With our board on a basketball high, hopefully not temporary, this seems like an apt time for this.

Grommet introduced us this past fall to a pick ‘em elimination contest for CUSA football - - https://csnbbs.com/thread-856283.html. It was a lot of fun for those who participated (aside from the shame of being beaten by a Drunkard). I’d like to try the same for the upcoming CUSA men’s basketball season play, with a few rule changes in order to translate this contest to the busier mbb schedule.

Here are the adjusted rules:

1. If you want to participate, simply post "I'm in" and I will add you to the list. By posting an “I’m in”, you will be deemed to have consented to public mocking of the utter stupidity of your weekly picks.

2. You must pick one CUSA team to win their game each weekend. Multiple people can pick the same team each week, but each participant can only pick a particular CUSA team once during the contest. The contest will apply only to weekend in-conference match ups (i.e., Fri.-Sat.-Sun. games, NOT Thursday or other weekday games; non-conference games do not qualify).

3. If there are any ties at the end of the regular season the CUSA championship game will be the tie breaker. You must pick the winner and total points scored.

4. Each entrant must post his or her selection on this thread with the words "Official Pick: [CUSA team]", or something equivalent, and I will record the pick. You are welcome to attempt to head-fake you competition with non-official picks, but once you use the words “Official Pick” you will be locked in for that week.

5. All official picks must be in three hours before tipoff of the first-scheduled CUSA weekend game - - e.g., by 12:00 noon (eastern time) on Sat., Jan. 5, by reason of the 3:00 p.m. scheduled tip time for the La. Tech. v. Rice game.

6. Any entrants still in play who fail to submit a timely pick, or who attempt to submit an ineligible pick, will automatically be assigned the CUSA team that remains available to them with the worst point spread disadvantage per the ESPN website.

7. If you pick correctly, you move on. If not, you're out. If everyone loses the same week, then those that were still in will continue on to the next week.

8. Once the list of remaining entrants has been trimmed down to 5 or fewer, contestant picks will no longer be posted publicly to this forum. They instead will be submitted to me by private message (to avoid the need for last-minute jockeying among the few remaining contestants). I will announce those privately submitted picks before the start of that weekend’s games. My own picks will always be early and public - - assuming I am still in the contest by the time we are down to the nitty gritty.

9. Grommet has not agreed to do this, but I don’t care. I am appointing him as the last word to resolve any disputes that may arise among contestants, or regarding the way I will inevitably mismanage the administration of this contest.

10. We are playing for trash-talking and bragging rights only. Any side bets need to be private.

11. Any lurker non-ODU fans are welcome to join in. Just don’t expect to be treated civilly.

I am probably posting this thread a bit too early, but I am still jazzed about yesterday's game. I will bump this thread a few times between now and year end in order to wrangle up as many participants as possible. Go Monarchs!

(12-16-2018 04:55 PM)odu09 Wrote: Question. I am assuming the intent for this is for conference games. Conference games are on Thursdays and Saturdays. Is the elimination contest only going to be for the Saturday games?

Uh oh. Here's my preliminary answer (Grommet may need to be called upon to make a ruling before we even get this contest underway if anyone disagrees):

The contest applies only to conference match ups. If one of our conference mates decides to use a free weekend night to schedule a non-conference game, that is not a qualified pick.

Just looking at our schedule, I see some non-Thursday and non-Saturday games scheduled. For clarity, Fri.-Sat.-Sun. games are weekend match ups and may be picked. Mon.-Thurs. games are weekday games and may not.